The accuracy evaluation of unmanned aerial vehicle technology for different coastal terrain mapping

Abstract

Due to its societal impact, coastal area is one of the most important parts in a developing country. The low cost Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) system can be used for various applications including mapping of coastal area. The aim of this study is to evaluate the accuracy of Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and orthophoto accuracies obtained from UAV system based on different coastal terrain. In this study, a micro fixed wing UAV attached with a camera digital were used for digital aerial images acquisition on two different coastal terrains (i.e. cliff and sandy) at flying altitude of 300m. The root mean square error (RMSE) analysis was used to assess the planimetric accuracy of orthophoto based on Northing and Easting coordinates and height accuracy of DEM. In this study, the average of Easting and Northing RMSE value for Crystal Bay, Alai Melaka and Kampung Seri Pantai, Mersing Johor are ±0.024m and ±0.076mrespectively. Meanwhile RMSE values for height are ±0.132m and ±0.390m for both study area. It shows that Crystal Bay, Alai Melaka show the smallest RMSE value for both average Easting and Northing and height coordinates which indicates that it is the best coastal terrain (sandy) for accurate orthophoto and DEM. In conclusion, these results from the UAV system are sufficient for most civil engineering project according to map standard published by American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.